Better Second Living through WindLight, glow, & sculpties!

My Second Life adventures have seen a series of distinct, but not disparate, phases — themes where I'll go on about something or other, then transition to a new topic in much the same way as an automobile takes the highway exit into an altogether different road. Often when I'm feeling a certain way, I'll inquire myself why this is: for example, in recent weeks, I've generally felt uncompelled to take snapshots inworld. This can largely be attributed of the removal of First Look: WindLight until such time we (Linden Lab) are ready to present it forth again, likely following the current showcase of First Look: Voice.

Try as I might, I couldn't wait any longer, and while I didn't build my own viewer (I still wish to learn in the future), I got ahold of a recent, readymade WindLight build. As evidenced in the following, some graphical yummies are present, complements of our devs-as-gourmet-chefs, making SL ever-more-so-beautiful for you. For example:

If you observed that the subject objects have a certain ethereal quality about them, a glow, you're quite right; also pay close attention to the quality of the ripple water, as it's been upgraded. It's less repetitive-looking (when viewed while zoomed out) and there's even a new preference option for… *gasp*… reflections! You may also recall me previously blogging about RenderGlow; well, in its current and tentative incarnation, like Full Bright, Glow is a parameter which can be applied on a per-texture basis, a 0.00-1.00 of its intensity. It isn't yet saved to the simstate, so changes made are temporary, but it's very promising. Gracious thank-yous for water + glow goodness respectively go to Runitai and Qarl Linden, and by extension, our whole cadre of graphical gurus. (We have a strong emphasis @ LL on peer reviews and there are always more people I need to thank, attribute, and use the Love Machine on.)

Numerous other fixes helpfully reported to us from the Issue Tracker have already been included, and the world looks less washed-out because the day cycle presets have lower gamma and the sun rises in the east (I remember Pastrami Linden remarking this for me to ping him about later!). Those benefits stated, I'm noticing various new bugs, which I have, and will continue to report, in hopes of expediting a solid delivery.

Well, then, what else is there?

I found myself going back in time — mentally speaking — to when I did the Watermelon Glow Grow Flex-Ability vid, now finding local lights + WindLight work together superbly. I love to emphasize how synergistic combining various features is; the future's so bright I have to wear shades!

The really kewl thing is, with WindLight's Scene Gamma slider, you can adjust the levels of what you see inworld to such a degree that it appears rich: remarkably saturated and good for printing on glossy photos! And unlike the current Gamma setting in Preference, this only affects SL, and not other running apps.

^ Unretouched, really! (And compare that with the current flat look.)

I took so many snapshots once again, I was so happy to see a more beautiful world. I understand it will take time for some to get used to the change, particularly because we were stuck with "the old way" for so long, but the rewards are just too great to be stagnant. And some of the visual glitches unto themselves lend promises of better things to come…

So there I was, sitting out in the ocean in my comfy new sculptie chair from Xenius Revere…

filing bugs and contemplating the future. I love to live an exploratory Second Life and openly observe what I find. I've fortified my drive to seek out eclectic treasures inworld, and with all the possibilities offered by kickass environments + killer skies, the curiosity-endowed can't help but literally change the world!

Here are more gorgeous highlights from my jaunts, and yes, I'm sharing them to inspire you, in hopes you'll take even more awesome photos when First Look: WindLight is available again:

Now's the part where I rave on about how I voyaged through the post-Secondfest grounds, as created by Rivers Run Red. Quiet after the big concerts, the whole affair is actually a gemful collection of various content creation treasures. It's spread across 9 regions, so plenty of space to gaze and admire, and each little bit holds unique charms. I'll play the game, then, where I show a photo and comment on it:

I'd love to see more gateways in SL like this. The "Welcome…" sign rotated 'round while I made my way past the turnstiles and into the tunnel. A very whimsical "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" feel about it. I rushed down and fanned out into the open grounds.

I got Might & Magic vibes looking at this fella, who's part of a hedge mage. The relatives on the right are something I found later. Yes, made out of sculpties — I might chance to declare that Secondfest, being a recent event, has a healthy quota of sculpted creations. This seat, with its baked shadow, was a pleasure too:

Those spiral-things are a sly nod to better deely-boppers, I just know it!

I had to sit down and take in the sights…

Unquestionably, one of the greatest benefits of sculpties is the fact we can now have pillows that don't look like blocks or awkwardly-twisted tori. These are soft and citrus:

Sculptie boat is sure to be a hit at frat parties too ("Let's see how many we can fit on this thing at once!'):

Behold, there's even a cute deer, which I changed the sky to a hazy orange to match; looks like something out of a lifestyle advert.

See more of my Secondfest snaps here. At the very least, I'll say I'm sheerly looking forward to future themed celebrations with such cohesive style, yet such a variety of eye-energizing treats. I think something that prompted me to document this to such an extent is because I feel an impending sense of transience, that this will be gone some weeks, or months later. Until such time it's as easy to store and restore large builds as it is webpages, I'll be present with my (literally) digital camera, capturing the moments.

Somewhat-random thot: I wonder if down the line, some prankster estate owner is going to set their sky settings to a seriously messed-up appearance, scaring new arrivees? I already noticed turning Scene Gamma wayyyy down leads to a posterized, very harsh look, which might be mistaken as the ol' "What the heck's wrong with my monitor!??" But I digress.

MORE WINDLIGHT BEAUTY TIME!!!! YAYZERAMA!!!!

These ones even better than the last, I reckon. But all part of a growing wealth, a treasury. I was reading about national treasures today and felt so moved. And someday, when we show people how the sky used to be, they'll give us incredulous looks. And further still, we will have advanced to something even greater. It's so awesome having the genius of Windward Mark be a part of Linden Lab! Proud parts of our history.

Another theme I've had lately: circular stuff.

and

because hats count too! But I haven't seen an ouroboros yet.

Another particular thing which came up was (as alluded to by the above) my experimenting with creating a "fake moon", i.e., changing the sky settings in such a way that the sun appeared positively nocturnal. I think, at least from a Square Enix perspective — you may recall these Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy environments — I succeeded:

Kinda has sort of a Gotham City vibe, dontcha think? So there you have it, approaches both striking towards photorealism and more outlandish looks.

I'm product-managing WindLight, so stay tuned on the Official Linden Blog for when we'll be opening things back up!

Tagged as: General, Inworld Exploring